Well the time has nearly arrived...Honeymoon time!
We have just spent the weekend picking up the last of the supplies, packing, finalising details for the itinerary and catching up with friends. And now it's just 5 sleeps until the adventure of a lifetime.
The trans-Siberian railway is something that has fascinated both Bevan and I for long before we met. After discovering this detail about each other, the planning conversations began, in late 2014. And then we got engaged (May 2015) and married (April 2017). We have decided to forego the traditional luxury, lie on a secluded beach style honeymoon in favour of ticking off one of those bucket list items, travelling across Russia to China on the trans-Siberian and trans-Mongolian trains. What better way to bond as a newly married couple than backpacking across the world for 8 weeks in completely foreign countries and where we can't speak the language....!
Our trip will take us from London to Beijing via France, Germany, Denmark, Norway, Sweden, Finland, Russia & Mongolia. Over 11000km's, 13 trains and 1 ferry, across 2 continents, multiple cultures, cuisines and customs. Just sitting back and watching the world by go by... After reaching Beijing we will head out to Xian (another 2500km return trip) to visit the Terracotta Warriors. We will leave our everyday, home and work routine and hit the road, only with what we can put on our backs. We can't wait!!!
A lot of time and planning has got us to this point. Deciding on the route and stopping points - the first version of our itinerary would have required 8 months! Applying for a Russian visa - 3hrs of paperwork if you're lucky enough to be an Australian citizen, and an interview. And then obtaining a Chinese and Mongolian visa. These last two requiring train tickets that took a bit of internet detective sleuthing to obtain.
I love everything travel and also enjoy the logistics of planning a trip. I also much prefer to blaze my own trail rather than be in a group. After obtaining the necessary visas came the task of booking individual train tickets, not too difficult for the European legs, however the Russian railways page is mostly in Russian…. Many google-translations later and we have a complete trip, bless the internet!
We will share our adventures and photos with you and hope that you will enjoy the adventures with us.
